Pierre Ragues was forced out of his first ever 12 Hours of Sebring with just three hours to run after a late technical issue ended the OAK Racing Team’s race prematurely. Pierre looks back on the weekend and draws positives from Sebring in preparation for the next ILMC race at Spa-Francorchamps in May.

Quick Q+A

Pierre, talk us through the opening race of this new Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Series from your point of view?
“It was a really enjoyable week and an unbelievable experience for me to take part in an event as prestigious as the Sebring 12 Hours. The atmosphere was incredible and although the end race result wasn’t what we were hoping for, we learned a lot about the OAK-Pescarolo LMP1 car, the Dunlop tyres and working together as a team for the first time in race conditions this year, so there were plenty of positives.”

Was it easy to learn the circuit and adapt the car set-up?
“It was my first trip to Sebring so I had to learn all the nuances of the track. Obviously, I had seen the track on the TV before so I had an idea of where the challenges would be. It was quite a surreal moment heading out for the first time in the test session earlier in the week but it soon became normal and I found a good rhythm quite quickly. We had a good test on Monday and for a few hours on Tuesday without any real trouble. We worked through our programme with Dunlop and had a good base heading into the actual race weekend. We were not looking for laptimes but were still with a representative position on the timesheets.”

Did the actual race weekend run as smoothly?
“Unfortunately we had a few problems with the alternator which affected our practice time but we were still able to get the car into shape for qualifying. My team-mates Guillaume and Matthieu were responsible for qualifying and starting for this race and they both did a good job. We started ninth on the grid and by the time I took over we were into the top six. I had a competitive double stint and the car was handling well with good pace. We were looking for fourth place overall, which would have been a fantastic result, but a terminal fuel tank problem forced Matthieu to stop and our race was over.”

What lessons do you take away from the weekend?
“Actually, the most encouraging thing from my point of view, aside from the overall competitiveness of the car and the tyres, was the way we worked together as a team. Obviously, I have worked with OAK Racing before, but Sebring presented a new situation for us all and we coped well with some difficult moments. Chasing fourth place at a track like Sebring makes me optimistic for the next events, the official Le Mans test day at the end of April and the next ILMC race at Spa in May. The team at OAK and Dunlop are working hard and, with the support of my personal sponsor Group Auto Union, I think we demonstrated our potential, so I’m looking forward to continuing this progress.”